For years, tax weary British Columbians have travelled to sales tax free Alberta to buy various products. The BC government has taken the unprecedented step in pressuring Costco to reveal the names of BC customers who shop in their Alberta stores.
The Oracle of Ottawa knows what it takes. Flattery!
Al-Quada VS Iraqi insurgents. Oh, goodness. Who to root for?
Eugene Parks shows up on the Shotgun and collects more evidence about my and Stephen Taylor’s shared business interests. -=| Insert joke here |=-
Iraq? Why isn’t this election about which leaders would send troops to Iran? Cause, we might just have to – providing we don’t wake up one of these mornings to a big shiny sea of glass.
Hi there Kate, SDA readers;
I’ve been watching the campaign season on the blog and all over the media, although I haven’t been posting. (It is not my fight after all.)
What I’m trying to say is: good luck tomorrow, give those Liberals hell!
Conservative wins vote in Portugal [ Leftists defeated ]
International Herlad Tribune ^ | 1/22/06
Posted on 01/22/2006 2:34:14 PM PST by LdSentinal
LISBON Exit polls indicated that Anibal Cavaco Silva, a former conservative prime minister, won Portugal’s presidential election Sunday.
Cavaco Silva, a reform-minded economist who has pledged to lead the country out of an economic slump, collected between 50.5 and 54.6 percent of the votes cast, according to a poll on the SIC television channel.
Exit polls by the state broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa and TV Independente also showed that Cavaco Silva appeared to have defeated five leftist candidates to become the first right-of-center politician elected president in Portugal since a 1974 revolution introduced democracy. The head of state holds no executive power, but wields considerable influence. >>>
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562903/posts
Re: BC PST on Alberta purchases
The fact that the roughly 50,000 or so people here in the Fort St. John area are responsible for generating a mere 20% of BC’s provincial budget revenues isn’t good enough.
We should drive 6 hours to Prince George, rather than 2 hours to Grande Prairie, AB, to shop at Costco, Future Shop, Home Depot, or London Drugs, so we can have the priviledge of paying PST. Clearly, we’re not pulling our weight. Besides, after a week of 12-hour work days, what could be more relaxing than a nice long drive through the Pine Pass … in winter?
As a fringe benefit, since we get to pay 15 to 20 cents a litre more for gas up here, the government will be even more grateful, since we could burn more of it. We’ve had a free ride for too long!
As Rick Mercer might say: Come on, Peace Region! You can do it!
Eugene? Isn’t that the name of the WWE Wrestler?
😉
Actually, Eugene the expert blogger is probably only a little sadder than Paul Martin is.
Eugene waited and waited to take his best punch at Stephen Harper and ended up being hit by a Buzz saw.
http://www.theinfozone.net is reporting on Paul Martin’s Dean Scream in Winnipeg.
TIZ
Sisters unveil database of Iranian victims to help with future `reconciliation’
Friday January 20, 2006
By NAHAL TOOSI
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) Ali was a 17-year-old killed after allegedly sympathizing with Iranian opposition groups. Ozra, a married woman, was killed after a charge of adultery. And Bahram, age 50, was executed for being a member of the Baha’i faith.
To the theocracy that replaced Iran’s monarchy after the 1979 Islamic revolution, these three and thousands more were criminals who deserved to die. To Roya and Ladan Boroumand, they were victims of a justice system without due process, and a crucial part of their homeland’s history that they feel obliged to expose.
On Friday, the two sisters unveiled what is believed to be the largest database dedicated to those executed under the Islamic regime. It is the result of years of examining human rights reports, media accounts, memoirs and other records. Of the more than 9,400 cases catalogued, one has a special place in the sisters’ hearts: that of their father, Abdorrahman Boroumand, whose leadership in resistance movements is believed to have led to his murder.
The Boroumand sisters, who live in Washington, D.C., hope their work will serve as a tool for Iranians who want to deal with the country’s history. The database’s release coincides with the 25th anniversary of the release of 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days after the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. via wbznewsbostonusa
http://www.abfiran.org
We’re on our way to risking a nuclear war in the middle east by allowing religious zealots who think like suicide bombers to develop nuclear bombs.
And many in the West are running around looking for a Chamberlain to declare ‘Peace in our time’.
It’s a shame that so many will have to die.
Fake e-mail could mislead voters
Last Updated Sun, 22 Jan 2006 17:22:56 EST
CBC News
Elections Canada is worried that voters could be led astray by a bogus e-mail doing the rounds, which purports to be from the country’s top election official.
Bearing the agency’s logo and the name Jean-Pierre Kingsley, chief electoral officer, the e-mail says people can vote on two days � Monday and Tuesday.
That’s not correct; “the only polling day is Monday, Jan. 23,” Elections Canada said in a statement posted on the weekend on its website.
* EXTERNAL LINK: Elections Canada
“This message does not come from Elections Canada, and is against the law,” the agency added.
Electoral officials said they became aware of the e-mail after someone in a B.C. riding took a copy to the local returning officer. >>>
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2006/01/22/fake-votes060122.html
via nealenews
This proves that not voting benefits the liberals.
How sad. I want a CPC Gov’t. but not at this price
People like this should be arrested, and if the liberals are behind this, they should be pummeled
beyond comprehension at the polls tomorrow, and set to wander in the wilderness for forty years.
Toronto.
British Columbia’s Minister of Revenue is borrowing a tactic from several U.S. states which have made similar attempts to collect sales tax on out-of-state purchases by their residents.
However, Costco is NOT a retail store. Costco is NOT open to the public; while membership is open to almost any non-incarcerated person who is willing to pay the $50 (Canadian) annual membership fee, it is a “wholesale warehouse” and not a retail store. It may be that the BC Government is relying on this technical distinction to go after Costco’s member transaction histories.
If Costco is compelled by Canada’s courts to violate its commitment to members’ privacy, it could really frighten Canadian consumers from making purchases at Costco Warehouses. It could also frighten Canadian consumers from using “HBC Rewards”, “Air Miles”, and similar “frequent shopper” cards which also link one’s individual purchasing history.
More disturbingly, it would open the door for other taxing jurisdictions to demand customers’ transaction information – and further erode privacy rights of ordinary consumers from all walks of life.
I see CBCpravda has pulled their headline making it look like Harper was offered Duceppe a cabinet post.
No doubt even one of the uberlord editors thought it might be suspicious.
we can now say things like . ” so blatantly obvious even the CBC noticed”
still nothing about Paul Martin slipping a cog last night. –the next cabinet meeting for Paul Martin and he will prove there was an extra scoop of strawberries taken.
Unanswered questions:::
Will Paris Stronach cross the floor again, –for the love of Peter McKay??
Will Scooter Brison stay with the Liberals to be with Piere Petticoat.?? or go to the side of Svend??
With Scotty Reid accept an instantaneous senate post tomorrow or drown himself in beer and popcorn watching reruns of the Senators playing the Leafs where Ottawa always wins??
SES numbers
January 22 (today) only
Conservatives 33.2
Liberals 30.4
NDP 22.2
BQ 9.4
Green 5.6
MOE 5.3
Undecided 12.5
Most interesting, amongst very likely voters, for today only:
Conservatives 32.7
Liberals 31
NDP 23.3
Bloc 9
Greens 4
MOE 5.8%
Undecided 9.9
Three day roll
January 20, 21, 22
Conservatives 36.4
Liberals 30.1
NDP 17.4
BQ 10.6
Green 5.6
MOE 3.1
Undecided 12.5
RE: BC buying Alta stuff.
One more nail in the coffin of our rights.
Imagine one of the most unionized and wrecked provincial Goverments going after Costco, a unionized frat.
How ironic, but how sad if the gov’t wins.
cheers
tom
Iran? They attacked Tierra del Fuego, did they not? Well, there’s so much going on that it’s hard to keep track of who’s doing what to whom. Fortunately there is a system, originally devised by a tribe of liberal suburbanites who danced in mumus beside starving-African statuettes lit by tiki tiki lamps to Les and Larry Elgart A-Go-Go, which lets you determine with ease the acceptability of international behaviours simply by determining where the various actors sit on the sliding scale of exotic/non-exotic.
In their easy-to-understand system, being “exotic” means you get exemptions for behaviours which would otherwise be considered standoff-ish. For example, Robert Mugabe, being uber-African, definitely qualifies as exotic. So if he evicts farmers from their land and executes journalists and that sort of thing, he qualifies for the exemption, whereas if a non-exotic did such a thing, he would not be exempt; rather, it would be considered a vicious outrage against all that is decent, and a moral desecration of all who have ever suffered — and who could argue with that? See? The system works.
Similarly, if someone forces someone else to shout “I am a Jew and my father was a Jew” repeatedly, as Daniel Pearl was just before his head was sawed off, there won’t be any large-scale outrage provided that the perpetrators are exotics . Obviously if it was a non-exotic, say a Nascar-American holding the saw, and an exotic on the receiving end, the whole thing would be really, really uncool. That’s not hard to figure out, if you use the system.
The most obvious example of exotic exemption is when you combine credible threats of genocide with nuclear capability. So if the leader of such a country has an unpronounceable name and dark-ish skin, and he vows to not rest until another race of people, oh, say, the Jews, are wiped off the face of the earth, it may not be cool, exactly, but it’s no biggie either. Lighten the skin a few tones, though, and put a toothbrush moustache on the guy, and bingo, all of a sudden such declarations are considered really, really uncool in an exemplary way.
The western-liberal “exotics scale” comes in one colour — white — and is really quite a useful tool for cutting through all the bullshit. It’s easy to use, accurate, and a really good way to figure out how things work. Best of all, it’s fun! Try it!
Costco couldn’t disclose its customers’ personal information without contravening federal legislation.
Simple fix to the provincial tax thingy … move to Alberta
Bill Murray,Ted Knight, and Rodney Dangerfield were acting the fool…. Eugene ain’t acting.
I am re-assured by this well-informed piece by Willian Arkin of the Washington Post, “Attack Iran? We’re Ready”:
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2006/01/attack_iran_wer.html
Excerpts:
…
‘…Though the U.S. military continues to prepare a preemptive attack war plan for Iran and North Korea under the “global strike” program, speculation of an imminent strike is utter fabrication.
But those who pooh-pooh preparations to take military action against Iran, or question the likelihood because of targeting difficulties, fail to understand the Bush administration’s policies and intent…
Global strike, formally known as CONPLAN 8022, refers to a specific set of contingencies to attack weapons of mass destruction should diplomacy fail in a crisis or if there are intelligence warnings of preparations for any type of strike on the United States or one of its allies. Practically, the global strike war plan applies to Iran and North Korea.
Global strike differs from other existing war plans — even for those two countries — in that it does not posit a U.S. response to invasion. That would be a defensive U.S. response. Instead, global strike constitutes a bolt-out-of-the-blue attack, a capability that has been developed wherein the President could order an attack within hours.
Since at least the middle of 2004, U.S. long-range bombers and submarines have been on alert to carry out an attack on weapons of mass destruction targets that could potentially threaten the United States. At Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in Omaha, the global strike plan has been written and refined. The choreography for bomber and cruise missile attacks has been arranged. Actual targets have been selected, and WMD activity is monitored, resulting in constant revisions of the choreography…
If Iran continues to defy the international community and manufactures nuclear weapons materials, and if U.S. intelligence detects peculiar movements or actions associated with nuclear facilities or, say, Iranian arming and alerting of its ballistic missile or fighter force, CONPLAN 8022 could be implemented to strike at the activity.
Given that the justification for preemption and for the global strike capability is to prevent “another 9/11,” this time one with WMD, it wouldn’t be relevant whether the United States was confident that it knew where ever last gram of Iran’s weapons were. The focus would be against Iran’s ability to deliver a WMD. The objective would be to forestall another 9/11. A strike that halted preparations for attack and set back the program so that it was no longer an immediate threat would be a success under the Bush administration’s plan.
This is why commentators who warn that the United States does not know where all of Iran’s nuclear capabilities are missing the point. Under global strike, the objective wouldn’t be to “disarm” Iran: It would be to stop it…’
By the way, Arkin is no fan of the Bush administation.
Mark
Ottawa
And an excellent piece on why Canada should be in Afstan: “Canada’s reality in Kandahar” by Sean Maloney, The Star (!), Jan. 22
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1137845786787&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Excerpts:
‘The spectacularly lethal suicide attack against the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar last weekend has raised concerns about Canada’s viability in the region and generated spurious comparisons to the American experience in Iraq.
Let us be clear: Kandahar province is the Canadian-held portion of the front line in the global war against Al Qaeda, a war that is as much fought in the psychological realm as in the physical. Succumbing to a terrorist act like this, particularly by withdrawing any component of the PRT, is exactly what Canada’s enemies are counting on…
…Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan is not and has never been “peacekeeping.”
Canada joined the Operation Enduring Freedom coalition in 2001 in order to destroy the Taliban shield that was protecting Al Qaeda’s infrastructure in Afghanistan. In the transition from major combat to stabilization operations after the collapse of the Taliban government, another international force was introduced into Afghanistan: the International Security Assistance Force.
ISAF was never a peacekeeping operation. Its job was to back the emergent Afghan interim government and, when that government was legitimized through elections, to build the Afghan security forces’ ability to protect their government from its enemies.
Canada contributed to both Enduring Freedom and ISAF. Both missions used lethal force; there was no impartiality involved…
Canada and Afghanistan are engaged in a counterinsurgency war. Canadian non-lethal assistance goes hand in hand with the conventional and special operations being conducted by Canadian and allied troops. The elements cannot be separated, no matter how many skittish Ottawa bureaucrats would like them to be.
The ultimate objective is to limit and then destroy the remnants of the Al Qaeda-supported Taliban, and prevent them from interfering with the construction process…
The media’s simplistic interpretation of the violence is, however, a danger to the coalition effort. The enemy wants the media to do its dirty work and undermine support back in Canada and the other coalition countries. This has succeeded with the Dutch, who will not thus far contribute to operations out of fear of what one opponent to Enduring Freedom operations repeatedly called the possibility of “a second Srebrenica,” in reference to the 1995 massacre in that Bosnian town…’
Mark
Ottawa
buying in Alberta to save taxes.
its practically unCanadian
“the horror. the horror , the hooooorroor”
Wilt — Oh how I hope you are wrong.
Mark in Ottawa
lets break things down a little
9/11–> I urge you to read the official 9/11 commission report, if you haven’t already, and then compare it with ommission and distortions by Dr David Ray Griffith
IRAQ, NO TIES TO AL QUEADA (mainstream news)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3715396.stm, http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/09/14/agents_knew_case_flimsy_powell_says/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47812-2004Jun16.html
NO WMD’S FOUND (mainstream news)
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/12/wmd.search/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7634313/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-03-02-un-wmd_x.htm
IRAN
I’m not a nuclear scientist, but what I do know is in order to make weapon grade uranium, you need a nuclear power plant for energy/electricity first (which Iran has none)
so how could they buid a bomb?then Iran would need the scientific expertise to convert that spent uranium from the power plant into weapons grade material and then Iran would need the technological knowledge on how to build a bomb, and then a means to deliver it. The Shahab-3 Iran’s longest range missile reportedly has a range of between 1,300 and 1,500 kilometers, and is not designed to carry a nuclear warhead,it is no treat to the U.S. and it’s allies whatsoever.
if you add all these up, they are decades away from building a bomb.The un security council is thinking about sanctions if Iran continues it’s research into nuclear technology for energy, which would then be subject to IAEA inspectors accounting for all the spent uranium if they were to have nuclear power plant, therefore they could not build a bomb.
ok, now lets assume for the sake of argument they do have a few nukes, why would they use it against there neighbors, Israel has 100’s of nuclear missiles and would not hesitate to use them leading to Iran’s total destruction
…actually I remember hearing ‘discussion’ about the southern part (boot area) of BC like Radium, Golden, etc, wanting to annex themselves to Alberta.
Would make sense, most of the licence plates I see there are from Alberta…
cheers
tom
Mark, regarding the quote from the Star:
‘The spectacularly lethal suicide’
– bad grammar and kinda sick, since when is a suicide “not lethal” and sickly “spectacularly”…
Agreed, the Canadians aren’t wearing blue berets, if anything we were a laughing stock wearing European forest camouflage green in the desert…meaning we couldn’t afford proper combat uniforms. As well bet they were where swapping helmets like in Bosnia.
If anything we have some of the best snipers in the world, as they are being used a lot by the US. One was so well hidden that a US Apache was firing around his area till someone told them to back off.
Yes, the Liberals and rest of the MSM is pretty quiet on Afghanistan. A local Calgarians went and did a documentary over there and CBC, CTV, NFB refused to aire it.
cheers
tom
As a Calgarian who frequents BC regularly
BC = Bring Cash
Nothing more to say …
TruthSeeker, I think you may be applying western value and logic to the Iranians where it may not apply, when you assume they won’t touch off a nuke because they’d get the same in return in spades. This makes sense only if you assume the crazies are in it for the life on Earth. If, instead, they view the objective as getting into Paradise with the Virgins and all the trappings by killing off all the infidels, then they won’t be constrained.
In British Columbia we unfortunately have a Provincial Liberal Party that has been polluted with the slime from the LPoC. Earnscliffe opened offices in Vancouver and Victoria some time ago, did it have anything to do with Christy Clarke having a run at the NPA mayoral candidate spot in Vancouver? Remember Christie’s husband, Mark M., is Smaul Fartin’s main man in B.C. Another LPoC trait that emerged was the B.C. government taking B.C. Ferries private(?), so that the public, the shareholder, is now unable to see the books. British Columbian’s need a party that is centre right, all we have now are varying degrees of left.
Laddy
I believe your assuming that ALL arabs/persians are fundamental extremist. I would suggest that you travel outside north america, or if you live in any big Canadian city, to reach out to these immigrants and attempt a dialogue with them.
you will find that althought they choose Canada for a chance at a better life, they still love there birth country and are still in touch with there friends and family in the middle east.
Iran, like the rest of the middle east has a history that goes back to biblical times, there
people (not the extremist), there culture and history is built on survival not destruction.